Guy Sechrist, PhD (@guysechrist) Bsky

Thank you!

5 days ago 1 0 0 0

Very excited (and grateful) to be joining the ’26–’27 Fellows cohort at the Linda Hall Library. I am looking forward to a fantastic summer/year of research and collaboration.

5 days ago 3 0 1 0

Front cover of a book - the image in the top half appears to be an embroidery of 6 human figures in an outdoor scene at night, with trees.

I am happy that this book is now published (in the series Connected Histories in the Early Modern World)!

Performing India in Early Modern England 1575-1642
Commerce, Spectacle, and the Formation of the East India Company
By Amrita Sen

www.routledge.com/Performing-I...

6 days ago 53 17 1 1

📖 New issue of the BJHS now out!

This issue brings together a rich set of contributions that explore how scientific knowledge is produced, communicated, and imagined across different contexts.

BSHS members enjoy full access to all articles!

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

1 week ago 12 6 0 3

This is exciting to see! #Envhist was only just beginning to appear at Cambridge when I was a grad student there in the late 2000s, although (as the organizers note) British historians have long thought about human-environment relations in other guises (landscape/economic history, hist. geography).

1 week ago 10 4 0 1

Would love to be more involved with this commission!

3 weeks ago 1 0 0 0

List of book tour dates in support of my book, Thy Will Be Done. Visit johngmarks.com for full details.

Just over a week until publication day and the book tour in support of THY WILL BE DONE is up over 15 dates! Come see me this spring/summer or invite me to come speak near you!

3 weeks ago 28 7 2 0

A railway station sign which reads: Welcome to Cambridge Home of Anglia Ruskin University

This remains one of my favourite bits of harmless trolling.

3 weeks ago 45 5 0 1

Cambridge offers botany course that inspired Darwin after rare archive uncovered University’s botanic garden will use study materials created by John Stevens Henslow, the naturalist’s mentor, 200 years ago

Great article by @donnalferguson.bsky.social in today's @theguardian.com about Darwin & Henslow's plant specimens & illustrations and the fab new @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social Certificate in Botany: www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Links for this course & many others here:
bsbi.org/learn/traini...

3 weeks ago 49 30 0 4

#earlymodern

3 weeks ago 6 1 0 0

oh, and I can send them over if you wish!

3 weeks ago 0 0 0 0

I have also found a nice cache of movie scripts - around 300 of them. They range from Clerks to Alien and are pretty cool to read through.

3 weeks ago 0 0 1 0

Wikipedia Bans AI-Generated Content “In recent months, more and more administrative reports centered on LLM-related issues, and editors were being overwhelmed.”

NEW: Wikipedia has banned AI-generated content.

3 weeks ago 23928 6811 198 816

casks as far as the eye can see.

3 weeks ago 1 0 0 0

Autumn: the #wine market in #Strasbourg, Wenceslaus Hollar, 1628-29. Hollar died #otd 25 Mar 1677. That would have been a very nice place to be. (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

3 weeks ago 5 1 1 0

Are you a PhD student working on slavery and/or emancipation?

There is only one week left to submit your abstract to participate in the PhD/Graduate Seminar on 22 October 2026 at KITLV, Leiden.

Deadline for abstracts (1 page): 30 March 2026, please send to: negron@kitlv.nl 👇

4 weeks ago 5 4 2 0

Society launches new funding programme for International Fellows and Associate Fellows - RHS The Royal Historical Society is pleased to launch a new programme, from today, to support the work of International Fellows and Associate Fellows. Recipients will be members of the Society, resident o...

We are pleased to launch today a new funding programme for Fellows & Associate Fellows of the Society resident outside the UK & Ireland bit.ly/3PtDQZu

Grants support research in UK / Irish archives for our international historians. Deadline 8 May to enable research from summer 2026 #Skystorians 1/2

3 weeks ago 57 43 1 2

Two women in the entomological section, © Senckenberg Archive

We’re excited to share our seminar line-up for Women in Natural History Museums & Collections. Please join us and help circulate! First out: Wednesday 6 May – 15:00–16:00 (CET) Luisa Kapp (Senckenberg Nature Research)
“Everywhere and Nowhere: Women in the Making of Natural History” 🧵#histsci #HPS

1 month ago 35 18 1 0

the plant-shaped human

the title page of the mentioned book with 22 images of wonderous humans.

The little fella, from the species of "Pflantz-Menschen" (plant-people), is one of many wonderous humans highlighted in a book from 1668 titled "Anthropodemus Plutonicus Das ist/ Eine Neue Weltbeschreibung/ Von Allerley Wunderbahren Menschen" (Vd 17 3:313062K).

1 month ago 32 6 3 0

Please register now for the Naval Dockyards Society 30th Annual Conference (Hybrid) - Global Maritime History Naval Dockyards Society 30th Annual Conference (Hybrid) National Maritime Museum Greenwich Saturday 28 March 2026 Sponsored by the Society for Nautical Research Aftermath of the 1956 Suez Crisis: Global Ramifications and Reflections for Dockyards and Shipyards Conference registration is now open. Attendance is available In Person or Online. The Booking Deadline for the Conference is March 23rd 2026. To complete your booking form please click HERE Everything you need to know about our conference speakers and presentations along with the conference programme is presented below. We are really looking forward to seeing you at Greenwich on March 23rd so please complete your booking early. Conference Abstracts and Biographies Dr Samantha Middleton, From Convoys to Crisis: How the WWII Maritime Infrastructure shaped Britain’s Strategic Failure in Suez and its Aftermath for Dockyards and Shipyards The 1956 Suez Crisis has often been portrayed as the symbolic end of Britain’s imperial era, yet its roots and repercussions cannot be fully understood without reference to the vast maritime infrastructure constructed during the Second World War. This paper examines how Britain’s wartime shipyards, dockyards, and global base network— originally built to sustain Atlantic convoys and far-flung naval operations—shaped both the ambitions that drove the Suez intervention and the strategic failures that followed. During the Battle of the Atlantic, Britain created an unparalleled logistical system: expanded home dockyards, high-output shipbuilding centres, repair facilities across the empire, and a global chain of fuelling and support bases. This infrastructure underpinned postwar assumptions that Britain could continue to act as a world naval power. By 1956, however, the geopolitical landscape had changed even as Britain attempted to employ an essentially WWII-era maritime model to execute a Cold War operation. The Suez crisis exposed the obsolescence and vulnerability of this system. Britain’s dependence on overseas bases—many located in newly independent or politically unstable regions—was abruptly revealed. The crisis also underscored limits in fleet readiness, supply-line security, and the ability of domestic dockyards to support sustained global operations without American backing. As a result, Suez became a decisive trigger for a far-reaching reassessment of naval infrastructure. In the aftermath, successive defence reviews accelerated the contraction of wartime shipbuilding capacity, the closure or downgrading of imperial dockyards, and the restructuring of labour forces in historic maritime communities. This paper argues that Suez marked not merely a diplomatic defeat but the moment when Britain’s WWII maritime system definitively ceased to be viable. By linking wartime mobilisation to post-imperial retrenchment, the study offers new insight into how the legacies of the Battle of the Atlantic cast a long shadow over Britain’s naval policy, industrial landscape, and global identity. Biography Dr Middleton is an early career naval historian whose doctoral research examined the professionalisation of the Royal Navy between 1660 and 1688. Her thesis adopted a multidisciplinary approach, integrating naval history with accounting history, and demonstrated that principles of management control were consciously developed and implemented by James, Duke of York, Samuel Pepys and William Coventry. She is currently finalising a co-authored article on this research and has presented her findings at a range of international conferences in both accounting and naval history. Dr Middleton’s recent publications focus on the Battle of the Atlantic and the role of intelligence during the Second World War. David F. Winkler, Filling the Void: The Reluctant Superpower East of Suez During the first decades of the Cold War, the Middle East/Indian Ocean region remained a backwater for the U.S. Navy as a commitment to build NATO in Europe as a counterweight to the Soviet Union and Pacific theater proxy wars – first in Korea and then in Vietnam – took priority. This paper will overview the U.S. Navy’s Middle East Force which was based out of HMS Juffair in the British protectorate of Bahrain through a transitional period that includes the Suez Crisis, the signing of the Baghdad Pact and the formation of CENTO, the decision of the UK in 1968 to withdraw “East of Suez” in the early 1970s, and the reaction of the Nixon administration. The paper will detail the American decision to only occupy a portion of the former British naval base as the U.S. – instead of replacing the British as guardians of the Gulf – will resort to a “Twin Pillars” strategy that assigns Saudi Arabia and Iran the role of regional policemen. The strategy will falter in 1979 with the fall of the Shah of Iran and the United States will be forced to increase its regional footprint, establishing a maritime prepositioned force at British-controlled Diego Garcia. Also covered will be the decision by a newly independent Bahrain to “Evict” the Americans in the wake of the October 1973 Middle East War. – but were the Americans shown the door? Of note the paper will highlight the symbiotic relationship between the ruling Khalifa family in Bahrain with an out of region power – first Great Britain and then the United States – as the emirate faced regional threats with the first and foremost being Iran. It’s a dynamic that continues today. Biography Dr. David Winkler was the Naval Historical Foundation historian, taught at the US Naval Academy, and is an U.S. Naval War College adjunct professor. A retired U.S. Navy commander, he holds a PhD from American University, an MA from Washington University, and a BA from Penn State. His notable publications include: Incidents at Sea: American Confrontation and Cooperation with Russia and China; Amirs, Admirals, and Desert Sailors: The US Navy, Bahrain, and the Gulf; Witness to Neptune’s Inferno: The Pacific War Diary of Lloyd M. Mustin, and America’s First Aircraft Carrier: USS Langley and the Dawn of US Naval Aviation. Richard Holme, Sheerness Dockyards 1956–2026: Bad and good news. Sheerness naval dockyard closed in March 1960, just four years after Suez. The announcement of this, made in February 1958, also saw news of other closures and reductions. The Nore command, responsible inter alia for the Thames and Medway estuaries as well as the Humber and Harwich, was to be abolished in 1961. The […]

1 month ago 6 6 0 0

Reverse Turing Test

1 month ago 2 0 0 0

History and Medicine - Associate Professor or Professor with Tenure - McMaster University This role is designed for an exceptional scholar whose work bridges humanities-based historical inquiry and contemporary infectious diseases scholarship, with particular emphasis on the history of pla...

Cool opportunity to work at the intersections of climate/environmental history and history of medicine!

History and Medicine – Associate Professor or Professor with Tenure – McMaster University

Apply by March 31st

niche-canada.org/2026/03/05/h...

#envhist #histmed #climhist #cdnhist

1 month ago 61 59 0 1

This just arrived. Very excited to tuck into this during Spring Break.

1 month ago 2 0 0 0

Eating at the Waffle House. Channeling my culinary idles.

2 months ago 0 0 0 0

This deserves more attention! I am laughing our loud!

2 months ago 1 0 1 0

2 months ago 11332 2980 68 42

I love my academic community on here - saw the Ring commercial and went to post about the centralized surveillance system capabilities and you all beat me to it. Keep being smart my fellow comrades!

2 months ago 6 1 0 0

Yes! I am particularly fond of integrating wonderful port images, like this one of Canton during the Qing Dynasty. The lecture is on Chinese Dynastic Trajectories and Trade.

2 months ago 1 0 0 0

This semester, I am teaching four classes (three preps). Two of the courses are brand new. So, lecture prep can be tedious, especially prepping slides. This said, I truly love it when I finish a deck and it turns out to be aesthetically beautiful !

2 months ago 2 0 1 0

A Treatise on the Virtues and Efficacy of a Crust of Bread: Eat Early in a Morning Fasting ... (1756) By Nicholas Robinson

No shortage of practical guide books in the 18th century...
#history #food #medicine #disease #anatomy

2 months ago 31 8 3 0

Posts by Guy Sechrist, PhD